Al Hilal SFC

Roberto Rivelino (left) and Najeeb Al Imam (right) playing for Al Hilal in 1979 meo

Al Hilal Club was originally known as the Olympic Club during its founding by Abdul Rahman bin Saad bin Saeed on 15 October 1957 in Riyadh. The club's name lasted for only one year before it was changed to its current name on 3 December 1958 by King Saud. He changed the name after he attended a tournament that was contested between the Olympic Club, Al Nassr, Al Riyadh and El Kawkab clubs. As soon as the club's establishment, Al Hilal enjoyed not only grassroots support but also royal attention.[3]

After spending their formative years building a squad, the club made their first mark by lifting the King's Cup trophy in 1961. That began a period in which the club won 50 official competitions. Al Hilal recaptured the King's Cup in 1964, with a penalty shootout victory over two-time Asian champions Al-Ittihad.

Al-Mayouf

Jang H.S.

Al-Bulaihi

Al-Breik

Al-Shahrani

Otayf

Al-Faraj (C)

Carrillo

Al-Dawsari

Gomis

Giovinco

2019 AFC Champions League Final starting lineup

The club were the inaugural winners when the Saudi Premier League came into existence in the 1976–77 season. Al Hilal won the title another 14 times and finished runners-up on 12 occasions in the space of 32 years. Al Hilal also have nine King's Cup, twelve Crown Prince Cup and eight Saudi Federation Cup titles.[4]

With the success, a number of players and coaches from outside Saudi Arabia joined the club in the 1970s, including Brazilian legends Mario Zagallo and Roberto Rivelino.

In 1991, they won the first Asian title, Asian Club Championship, beating Iranian club Esteghlal F.C. in penalties in the final. They won it again in 1999–2000, when they scored an equaliser in the 89th minute and won the match against Júbilo Iwata in the extra-time. Lastly, they won again in 2019. In the final, they played against the Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds, to whom they lost in the final 2 years before. They successfully took a revenge and won 3–0 in two legs.

Al Hilal were also the runners-up for four times. They were second after the round-robin in the final round in 1986. They reached the final in 1987, but Yomiuri FC were crown the champion automatically as Al-Hilal were unable to field a team for the final due to nine of the starting players being chosen for the Saudi team's preparation camp that clashed with the date fixed for the first leg. Al Hilal reached the final of AFC Champions League in 2014, 14 years after their last appearance in the final. This time they faced Western Sydney Wanderers. The Australian club won 1–0 on aggregate.[5] Al Hilal reached the final again in 2017 but they lost to the Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds.

In 1997 they captured the Asian Cup Winners Cup and the Asian Super Cup of that year, which they lifted again in 2002.

Al Hilal currently plays their home games at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, stadium that was constructed in 1987 with a capacity of 67,000 supporters. The club's reserve team stadium, Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, was used in 2011–12 when King Fahd Stadium was under renovation. When prince Abdulrahman bin Musa'ad became the President of the club in 2008, there was some serious idea of making Al-Hilal home avenue but it was shortly declined.

Al Hilal has a long-standing rivalry with Ittihad. From the start of national competition the clubs were seen as representatives of the two biggest cities in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh and Jeddah. While Al Hilal have won four Asian Club Championship in years 1991, 1999–2000, 2019 and 2021, Ittihad has won AFC Champions League two times in a row, in 2004 and 2005. Al Hilal won the Saudi El Clasico 62 times, while Ittihad has won it 50 times and two sides have drawn 35 times. In 2019. The biggest win was when Al Hilal defeated Ittihad 5–0 in 2009–2010.[6]

Another rivalry is with their neighbors Al-Nassr, which is called Riyadh's Derby. They have met 148 times, Al Hilal has won 59 times, and lost 48 times, while 41 games have ended in a draw.[7] The biggest win is for Al Hilal when they defeated Al-Nassr 5–1 in 2016–17. The rivalry with Al-Nasser is violent between them more than the rivalry with Al-Ittihad. As an example, when Al Hilal reached the 2014 AFC Champions League Final, in 2nd leg Al-Nassr fans awaited Western Sydney Wanderers arrival at the airport to spur them on against Al Hilal and tried to sabotage Al Hilal's ticket plan.[8]

Special seats have been allocated for the disabled to watch the training. Twenty-five percent of the income of tickets sold goes to charities. Players and board members arrange and attend social activities for charities during Eid and other holidays.

In 2009, the club opened a new camp in Riyadh. It contains 25 rooms, meeting rooms, smart room for lectures, library, eating room, living rooms, a big salon and a medical clinic. It also has entertainment corners for video games, table tennis, billiards, table football and many others. There are two training fields for the senior team.

The club holds 64 official titles.

Domestic

Saudi Arabian competitions	Titles	Runners-up
Professional League (17/15)	1976–77*, 1978–79, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1995–96, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2019–20, 2020–21 (Record)	1979–80, 1980–81, 1982–83, 1986–87, 1992–93, 1994–95, 1996–97, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16, 2018–19
King Cup[10][11] (9/7)	1961, 1964, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1989, 2015, 2017, 2019–20	1963, 1968, 1977, 1981, 1985, 1987, 2010
Crown Prince Cup (13/4)	1963–64, 1994–95, 1999–00, 2003, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2015–16 (Record)	1956–57, 1998–99, 2013–14, 2014–15
Super Cup (3/2)	2015, 2018, 2021 (Record)	2016, 2020
Federation Cup (7/5)	1986–87, 1989–90, 1992–93, 1995–96, 1999–2000, 2004–05, 2005–06 (Record)	1985–86, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2007–08, 2009–2010
Saudi Founder's Cup (1/0)	2000 (Record)

Confederation

Asian competitions	Titles	Runners-up
AFC Champions League (5/5)	1991, 2000, 2019, 2021,(Record)	1986, 1987, 2014, 2017 (Record)
Asian Cup Winners Cup (2/0)	1997, 2002 (Shared Record)
Asian Super Cup (2/1)	1997, 2000 (Shared Record)	2002

Worldwide

Intercontinental Competition	Titles	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
FIFA Club World Cup (0/2)				2019, 2021
Afro-Asian Cup (0/1)		1992

Others

Interfederations competition	Titles	Runners-up
Saudi-Egyptian Super Cup (King of Saudi Arabia Cup) (1/0)	2001[12]
Saudi-Egyptian Super Cup (President of Egypt Cup) (0/1)		2018

The table below chronicles the achievements of Al Hilal in various competitions since 1999.

• Sultan Al-Saud

• Official website (in Arabic and English)
• AlHilal deal with Mobily